Friday, September 28, 2007

Just to feel like I've got some connection to the falconry world I've been making some equipment. I'm trying out some designs for sparrow traps that I've seen around and since sparrows and starling are legal to trap year round with or without residency I can make sure my designs will provide some food once I finally do get a bird.

The spiral trap on the left was posted on the kestrelfans yahoo group by Matt Mullenix, the multi-chamber may have been too. The drop in trap is kind of a variation on one that a lot of people say is effective but we'll just have to see if my design quirks work or not.

So far the only one that's proven itself is the multi-chamber. I caught a sparrow and an oriole type bird (which I didn't even think could fit in the trap!). Both birds were released unharmed, but in two weeks the Colorado Hawking Club is having a field meet and I'm hoping to tag along with some people trapping to see if the sparrow harnesses I've been making work. The next sparrows will have some work to do!

Monday, September 24, 2007

A falconer from Texas posted this picture of a friend's female Cooper's Hawk (Turbo Dog) chasing a grackle on another site and I just thought it was a cool picture so I'm posting it here. Someday I'll get to fly a Coopers...someday.

Friday, September 21, 2007

With no job yet and school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays we took advantage of some free time on Wednesday and went down to a National Park called "Garden of the Gods" near Colorado Springs.

仕事はまだなくって，学校は火，木だけなので暇を使って近くの国立公園“神の庭”に出かけました。

The above picture is at the visitors center near the entrance of the park. The red rock ridge sticking up in the back ground is called "Kissing Camels". If you look closely you can see why:

上の写真入れ口だけど後ろの岩は“キシングラクダ”と言います。なぜかというと良く見たらなんとなく分かると思う。

Anyway, we headed over toward these 'kissing camels' to take a short hike through the heart of the park. As we got to the trail head I noticed this sign:

とにかくその近くにハイキングの道があったからそこに向かいました。ハイキングの所に着いたらこの知らせがありました：

I don't know if you can read the letters in red that I've highlighted but it says that the formation is closed to rock climbing from February to August due to nesting Praire falcons. "Cool!" I thought and I started looking closer at the cliffs hoping to spot one even though it is September...Just then I hear "kyaaa kya kya kya", the distict voice of a praire falcon!! Now I was really excited. I remembered I had binoculars in the car so I ran back and grabbed them. As soon as I got back to the the sign I could hear the falcon again. I'm guessing it was a juvenile, recently fledged and still trying to beg food off it's parents. And then, there it was, gliding near the cliff edge screaming away!

My wife thought it was hilarious because I was pointing and yelling, "Look there she is, do you see her? Do you see her?!" What can I say, I was excited. And then she landed on the cliffs and I got a really good view of her with the binoculars. Unfortunately our camera isn't as good as the binoculars. As you can see, she was a ways away:

Here he is using digital zoom AND photoshop to sharpen the image...still not the greatest pic:

ディジカメのズームを使ってここまで見えるけどまだまだ綺麗ではない。

I could've spent the rest of the day watching her but the wife said there was hiking to be done so I finally had to put the binoculars away and go hiking. When we came back an hour later though she took off from the ledge she had been on and circled the kissing camels once before settling back on the cliff. I really wish I had a better camera!

Monday, September 17, 2007

On Saturday I headed down to Colorado Springs to attend an apprentice seminar put on by the Colorado Hawking Club. The seminar covered Colorado regs, field identification, trapping, suggestions for success in the first 2 years, and a coping demonstration...The coping demonstration is the only thing I got pics of!

I went mainly for the networking, I wanted to meet some more local falconers and talk to the President of the club about getting my license here. He says he'll vouch for my experience as far as an upgrade to general but there's really no way around the 6 month residency thing. I think I'm pretty much sunk as far as getting my own bird this season goes. It'll be a watch and learn kinda year, and let's be honest, it could be worse.

Monday, September 10, 2007

This not having a license and not being able to trap thing is going to drive me nuts. Running some errands this afternoon I saw 3 kestrels and 2 red-tails within about a mile stretch of each other! And that's not to mention all the other red-tails and kestrels that weren't in that mile stretch!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

I'm finally back in the States! After a couple weeks in Hawaii (where I did a bit of spearfishing, my second love), we flew to Utah to spend a couple weeks with the folks and then on August 30th we drove over to Colorado where we'll start life all over.

Shortly after we arrived in Utah I began calling around to see what I'd need to do to get going on this whole "relicensing" thing...It's gonna be an uphill battle to say the least. I first called Colorado and they said that they won't recognize any of my falconry experience in Japan because there isn't a government license there to prove I was a falconer. A letter from the President of our local hawking club, pictures and video isn't enough apparently (rolls eyes). But they did say that they'd recognize my apprenticeship from 10 years ago if I had copies of my licenses etc. So I call up the folks at the Utah FWS...They say they have NO RECORD of me ever being a falconer there! Wha...?!? So to make a long story short, I've asked my sponsor to write a letter stating that I was his apprentice and that I'm qualified to be upgraded to a general. Whether or not it works is yet to be determined *Sigh*. But we'll see.

In the meantime, I'm not letting MY lack of a license keep me from going out with other falconers. We'd been in Colorado less than 72 hours before I hooked up with Richard and Becky Brunoette (sp?), goshawkers who live about 45 minutes away from my new apartment. They were gracious enough to let me tag along for a training run with a young gos. There were plenty of bunnies to go around but the brown bird hasn't quite got it's head wrapped around those bouncing furballs yet. It won't be long though I'm sure. I'm looking forward to the season whether or not I have a bird (although, let's be honest, I'd rather have my own bird...;-).

"The reward that comes from practicing falconry is, and has to be, a feeling of your own personal satisfaction; that, and that alone. Chances are no one else will be around when your hawk is at her best. Falconry is a tedious, time consuming effort with long periods of stress and anxiety punctuated by heartbeats of gut-wrenching visceral satisfaction so intense that is impossible to put into words."